-The Economist West Bengal’s populist chief minister is doing badly. Yet she typifies shifts in power in India BUYER’S remorse is common enough in the dusty markets of Kolkata, a delightful if crumbling great city, once known as Calcutta and still capital of the state of West Bengal. Those who buy cheap plastic goods or plaster-of-Paris busts of Rabindranath Tagore, Bengal’s cultural hero, may come to regret their haste. Likewise, many who...

—PTI Hours before the deadline set by Naxals for releasing their jailed members in exchange for an abducted MLA, a retired Army officer approached the Supreme Court on Wednesday to restrain the Odisha government from meeting the Maoists' demands. Major-General (retd.) Gangurdep Bakshi pleaded that the government be restrained from releasing the Naxals as they had been captured by security forces while putting their lives at stake. Maj.-Gen. Bakshi, an expert in counter-Terrorism...

Mamata Banerjee skipped today’s meeting on internal security but sought to extract her pound even in absentia. The Bengal chief minister asked the UPA government to bear the entire cost of deploying central forces for anti-Maoist operations in the states, arguing that Left-wing extremism (LWE) had “implications” for national security. “The LWE problem is not an ordinary law-and-order problem affecting a particular state. It has serious implications on national security. It would,...

-PTI Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa has expressed her "vehement objection" to the National Commission for Human Resource for Health (NCHRH) Bill, 2011, saying it "undermines" the powers of the state governments.  The Bill, now referred to the Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfare by the Rajya Sabha, effectively puts the leadership and decision making process with regard to medical, dental and paramedical education in the "hands of about 25...

-The Economic Times Even as the Centre is desperately trying to accommodate its key ally Trinamool Congress chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee over National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC), the alliance partner is showing no signs of reciprocating the gesture in the crucial highways sector where projects are getting delayed because of tardy land acquisition. National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), the main implementing agency for highway development in the...